Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Teachers are losing control of their classrooms, and it’s not because students have gone wild. No, the kids are not taking over the schools. They’re just fine. In fact, a student revolution wouldn’t be nearly as disturbing as what’s really going on. It’s the Republicans that are attacking our schools and threatening to cripple—and possibly destroy—our democratic institution of public education.
Our public schools have come under concentrated attack by an extremely vocal minority of conservative activists targeting everything from curriculum like 1984 and To Kill a Mockingbird, Bluest Eye, and—most recently—the award-winning graphic novel Maus, to the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools (which, by the way, has never been taught in public schools) to attacking school boards for advocating mandates necessary to help stem the spread of Covid.
The reasoning behind these attacks—even when it exists—is specious. Critical Race Theory is not a subject that can simply be banned, but is the overarching concept that racism is an integral part of our society. CRT maintains that every aspect of our lives, including the economy, housing, education, the criminal justice system, and health care ,is tainted by institutionalized racism. Apparently, by condemning CRT, the activists are saying that they don’t want to acknowledge the existence of racial inequality and bigotry in this country. They want to ignore it. They want to bury it.
According to The Brookings Institution, a number of state legislatures, including Wisconsin’s, have introduced legislation banning “certain concepts” from being taught in public or charter schools. Other states have passed or are in the process of passing this type of legislation, and districts that have passed explicit laws banning the teaching of CRT (nice trick to ban something that has never been taught) are in reality targeting aspects of American history or literature curricula that articulate and expose racist practices.
The real-life implications of these policies are that U.S. History curriculum may be forced to exclude mentioning slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, and the accomplishments of notable figures like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Stephen Douglas, or Harriet Tubman.
Manifest Destiny, the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, and Red Cloud’s War would also be excluded (although I have a feeling Little Big Horn would find its way into the history text)—as would the internment of Japanese American citizens of World War II. These may not be proud moments in American history, but they are American history, whether they are ignored or not.
Novels like Bluest Eye, Beloved, or To Kill a Mockingbird, literature that articulates the practice and effects of racism, have also been blacklisted. A school district in Tennessee recently banned Art Spiegelman’s celebrated graphic novel Maus, a chronicle of a Jewish family caught up in the Holocaust.
According to The Times of Israel, the School Board of McMinn County, Tennessee, banned Maus because parents expressed concerns about cursing, nudity, and instances of parental disrespect in the text. One parent wanted the school to focus on the positive American role in The Holocaust, as when troops liberated the camps—this despite the fact America ignored the plight of Jews in Hitler’s Europe for years. Apparently, that factoid would be too unpleasant to contemplate. And making someone uncomfortable is now against the law.
Oklahoma passed a law last May banning K-12 schools from teaching curriculum that “causes discomfort, guilt, anguish, or psychological distress” to students because of race or gender. (Business Insider). I wonder whether this might be aimed at Black students forced to read Othello or Heart of Darkness. Probably not.
It’s not only curriculum these conservatives want to get rid of. They’re after the teachers, too. Yet another newly proposed bill in Oklahoma would allow any interested party to sue instructors who teach curriculum contradicting religious beliefs held by any single student for no less than $10,000. Individual teachers, not the school or the district, would be liable for damages, and if the teacher were unable to pay, she would be fired. According to the bill, a teacher could be sued “per incident, per individual”. Of course, this bill is intended to intimidate educators and school boards—which is part and parcel of the Republican game plan.
What is the logical conclusion to this attack on public schools? What will U.S. History look like with no mention of slavery, the Trail of Tears, or the West Virginia Union Wars? (If that last is even currently being taught.) What will American Authors classes look like with no Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, John Steinbeck, or Maya Angelou? What will science class look like without the theory of evolution, carbon dating, or paleontology?
For a coming attraction of this brave new world, we might look at the ACE, or Accelerated Christian Education curriculum which is taught in over 3,000 schools. Textbooks in this curriculum state that homosexuality is a choice, evolution is false, and that wives must be subservient to their husbands. One of their history texts also maintains apartheid was a system that worked well in Africa, and that—wait for it—that the Loch Ness monster is real.
These concepts are—most obviously–not factually based but, strangely enough, quite politically convenient. Today, now, some charter schools in Florida—using public funds—use this curriculum. Our tax dollars are being used to teach children—in science class—that Nessie is real.
These latest attacks on our public schools are not new; they’ve been going for decades. Just ask Betsy DeVos. What’s new is that they have, through surges in fear, ignorance, and bigotry, gained significant traction among the citizenry. Book burnings are already happening.
We could be staring at the future of education in America, the land of denial.